The Nightmare Continues

Let me start by putting it out there that if I get any more right-wing, keep-the-foreigners-out, build-a-wall, tighten-up-the-borders, how dare they fly the Mexican flag at a US high school, mass email thingies from anyone, I will be angry enough to stop speaking to you for awhile. I am not posting tonight to get all liberal/political on my readers most of whom have been incredibly supportive and encouraging and understanding through our Guatemalan adoption mess (I love you all, keep the + comments coming!), but just so it is clear where I stand: we are all on ONE planet people! The lines that we call borders have not been here that long as far as the history of the world goes. And last time I was in Alaska or New Mexico or looked out my windows for that matter I noticed that WE ARE NOT FULL. We are not at max capacity. We are not a poor country. There are many, many, many Americans who could help feed a few hungry, desperate people.

Seems we have butted up against one little immigration law that will now become the thorn in our sides, the mountain to scale, another obstacle to overcome before Ali can come home. Despite the fact that we are now legally her parents, her ONLY legal parents, the Department of Homeland Security at the US Embassy in Guatemala claims that she is not a legal orphan according to section 101(b)(1)(F) of Title 8 Code of Federal Regulation 204.3(a)(2). They are basing this opinion on an early ruling of the Family Court (that eventually approved our case) which stated that Ali's birth mother, "did not have the capacity to want or act by herself with discernment or enough understanding" even though after countless doctor evaluations the court finally ruled that Ali's birth mother did know what she was doing, and the adoption was finalized. The birth certificate that the Embassy has in our file lists us as her parents. But the Dep't of Homeland Security does not want to issue her a visa so she can actually reside with her parents. What would they like us to do with her? They don't care.

Eventually she will come home. Our Guatemalan attorney is confident, and our agency is ready to fight til the end. Our attorney says it is just another step, just another procedure to follow, more of the process than we had expected. What the Embassy says needs to happen now for them to continue on our case is for us, or one of us, to be physically present at the Embassy in Guatemala to sign and date our I-600. Then the Embassy will "formulate" a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) and send it to us. Then we may submit a rebuttal. That is how we proceed from here according to DHS at the Embassy. Our attorney has had one NOID before and our agency had one other seven years ago. From our attorney it sounds like we, or J, goes down there and signs the form and then gets the NOID and then goes in person to submit a rebuttal by sitting down with the DHS guy and explaining the case. We convince them, they issue our visa appointment date and J stays til he comes home with Ali. The email from the Embassy made it sound like there is a lot more to it than that.

Hopefully some or all of our questions about what we do to resolve this will be answered this week. For now that's all I know. And, Amy D., where IS that voo-doo doll?!?!